1. Field of Invention
The field of invention relates generally to flash media and, more specifically but not exclusively, relates to a method and software for recovering data from defectively-formatted flash media.
2. Background Information
Many kinds of flash-based media, such as COMPACT FLASH, SMARTMEDIA, MEMORY STICK, MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital Card, etc., are currently being used for various applications, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs etc. There is also a new picture format, XD(Xtended Digital) Picture Card, announced by a consortium of Japanese electronics manufacturers, including Toshiba, Fuji, and Olympus. Often flash media are inserted and removed from a host device, such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), digital camera, MP3 player, etc., and inserted into a reader or other, similar device. It occasionally happens that a person may remove a media card while the system is reading to or writing from the card. Media card removal, particularly during the writing, but also sometimes during the reading, may destroy the card formatting, resulting, in most cases, in making the data unreadable by the interfacing device. Media card formatting and file information is sometimes corrupted or lost due to other causes, such as power failure during read or write operations, faulty programs, faulty host device or reader, high level “erasing” of files by a user, who later wants to recover such files, or other causes. As a result, the content on the card cannot be read and/or accessed. What is clearly needed is a software tool that allows analysis of such “destroyed” cards and a repair and restore utility to restore the card formatting and, to the maximum extent possible, the picture files, music files, or other files on the card.